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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Characterization of Surface Modifications by White Light Interferometry: Applications in Ion Sputtering, Laser Ablation, and Tribology Experiments

Characterization of Surface Modifications by White Light Interferometry: Applications in Ion Sputtering, Laser Ablation, and Tribology Experiments

Published on: February 27, 2013

White-light interferometry on rough surfaces--measurement uncertainty caused by surface roughness.

Pavel Pavlicek¹, Ondrej Hýbl

¹Joint Laboratory of Optics of Palacky University and Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Olomouc, Czech Republic. Pavel.Pavlicek@upol.cz

|June 3, 2008

Summary

White-light interferometry struggles with optically rough surfaces, leading to questions about measured height and uncertainty. This study uses numerical simulations to investigate how surface roughness impacts white-light interferometry measurements.

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Area of Science:

Optical Metrology
Surface Characterization
Computational Physics

Background:

White-light interferometry (WLI) is a common technique for surface height measurement.
Optically rough surfaces present challenges for WLI, often failing to resolve lateral structure.
Significant height variations within a single resolution cell can exceed a quarter of the light's wavelength.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine the effective height measured by white-light interferometry on rough surfaces.
To quantify the impact of surface roughness on measurement uncertainty.
To address fundamental questions regarding WLI performance with non-ideal surfaces.

Main Methods:

Numerical simulations are employed to model WLI measurement processes.
Analysis includes the distribution of speckle intensity.
The influence of surface roughness and the spectral width of the light source are investigated.

Main Results:

Simulation results provide insights into the measured height on rough surfaces.
The study quantifies the relationship between surface roughness parameters and measurement uncertainty.
Understanding speckle intensity distribution is crucial for interpreting WLI data.

Conclusions:

White-light interferometry measures an effective height influenced by surface roughness and speckle statistics.
Surface roughness directly increases measurement uncertainty in WLI.
Numerical simulations are a valuable tool for understanding the limitations and behavior of WLI.